Given that in the globalized world some educational patterns, such as the Bologna process, are imported and used in different parts of the world, there are no sufficient studies on how these new patterns work in local conditions. This research area, grounded on the theory of education policy borrowing by G. Steiner-Khamsi, T. Popkewitz, I. Silova, B. Streitwieser, discovering new and undeveloped cases to study, formulates a twofold aspect to research. On the one hand, it is an investigation of how European educational patterns impact on non-European local education, and, on the contrary, how local education, in its turn, reacts to the imported European policies. As the scholars point out, education borrowing does not mean copying or an exact implementation of the borrowed patterns, but it is a revealing of how models of a global system are transferred, work and change in different local conditions. (Popkewitz 2004, Steiner-Khamsi 2004).

Kazakhstan in this regard represents an interesting case to study, as it is the first country of Central Asia, which implemented the Bologna process. While Kazakhstan inherited its higher education system from the Soviet Union, it chose the reformation path towards the European educational system straight after the collapse of the USSR and purposefully followed it during the last decades. In 2010 Kazakhstan joined the Bologna process.

The crucial role in the transformation process plays its main actors, i.e. teachers and educators, for whom this transformation was, and is, a rather complex experience.

Some of them have a strong belief that the Soviet education system was one of the best in the world and that it should not to be changed, while others support the reforms to various extents. The focus of the research is the views of Kazakhstan educators regarding the new education reform under the Bologna process. Similar research was undertaken by B. Streitwieser (2000) by studying the East German teachers` negotiations with the school reformation under the West German school system in the post-unification period. Another study was conducted by Christofoletti on academics` views on higher education reform in Brazil (2010). My research will follow Streitwieser`s approach to apply the theory of educational policy borrowing, unlike Christofoletti’s method.

The main research question is how do Kazakhstan higher education professionals accept, evaluate and react to the education reform under the European educational patterns?

The rationale for this question is derived from the necessity to promote further education reformation in Kazakhstan in the best possible way by revealing factors that obstruct the process.

The main objectives are:

- to study teachers` attitudes and evaluations of the new education reform under the Bologna process in Kazakhstan HE;

- to examine the existing educational background in Kazakhstan, which was undergone by a new education policy;

- to determine the inner problems preventing the process of full adaptation of the Bologna process;

- to formulate the recommendations to promote further the educational reforms in Kazakhstan towards international standards.

Popkewitz T. (2004). Foreword. In G. Steiner-Khamsi (Ed.), The Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending (pp. vii-xii). New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University Steiner-Khamsi G. (2004). Introduction. Globalization in Education: Real or Imagined? In G. Steiner-Khamsi (Ed.), The Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending (pp. 1-6). New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University Streitwieser, B. (2000). Negotiating transformation: East Berlin teachers in the post-Unification decade. (PhD thesis). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. (ID: 9970291) Christofoletti, J. F. (2010). Higher Education Reform in Brazil. (PhD thesis). Institute of Education, London.